Dragon NPC

[RATHSQUATCH]

Hello, I'm attempting to level my party with a wymling brown dragon they meet as an NPC. What I did from there was attempted to work out a 20 level progression with a Draconic type class to level along with them (unless they kill it for being evil). Do you think this progression looks balanced, or what changes might you make?



For clarification, Exceptionally Powerful just makes the Dragon's Maximum Strength a 24 instead of a 20. All other abilities are taken from the Black Dragon in the Monster Manual.

[The_Jette]

Question: is there going to be a limit to the amount of times the dragon can use its breath attack, or does it start off with at will? Because an at will 2d8 area attack at level 1 seems a bit much...

[RATHSQUATCH]

I was going to go with a recharge 5-6.

[The_Jette]

I was going to go with a recharge 5-6.

Even that will be extremely powerful. You might want to consider making it once a day, then increasing its uses every few levels, with a pause in between that goes down as the uses goes up, and end with at will with the shortest recharge between uses. Like, start with 1 use, then go to 2 uses at level three with a 2d8+2 recharge between uses, at 5 3 uses with 2d6+2 recharge, 7 4 uses with 2d4+2 recharge, 9th 5 uses with 1d8+1 recharge, 11th 6 uses with 1d6+1, 13th 7 uses with 1d4+1 recharge, then at will with 1d4+1 recharge at level 15. Or, something like that. It'll build up the feel of the breath weapon leveling up with you, and won't overbalance the class.